Mysterious Silver Snuffbox. Made in (Country?) in (1xxx?)

It looks like it has bubbles and was probably heated when applied.Try alcohol,paint thinner,WD-40 and possibly a hair dryer to heat up the silver a bit to scrape it with a wood edge.

 

If I remember you found the hallmark with a lion and flame in a cartouche in Tardy's book, with more time at home I look exactly about my remembrance of this.
From a collector and seller point of view, it's not really a good idea to "scrap" interiors when you can't take away with water and detergent, that makes marks which can be suspicious about a repair for example(when you have to resolder a part etc…).

I've found this hallmark, Tardy page 47

 

I just soak dirty silver in mild soapy water. If the dirt is persistent I use alcohol.
In this case it looks like the dirt accentuates the marks, cleaning the box could make them less legible.

 

As a complementary information, for cleaning very delicate items or items which is not possible to use water or liquid based media, like when it's painted or with a miniature, the use of a sanding media composed of micro balls of sysnthetic non electrostative is the alternative choosen.
Years ago, when I had the necessity to clean those type of items,

the seller for those tools make froofing with me on a lot of possibilities, from bathes to miniature vapor cleaner we stay on the microsanding with microballs.
And result is :

With the most important point that was made without anything liquid.

 

Beautiful piece. Is it for a watch?
The method you describe, is it a specialist, professional technique?

 

I'ts a french mantelclock, I haven't taken the movment in my workshop but it was a "mouvement de Paris" with single bell for hours and half hours.
The microsanding is a profesionnal technique but if you have enough space, air compressor and money to buy it it can be an amateur device.
Mine is usable on items until about 50 centimeters in the maximal dimension and at the smallest one it's like on this ivory Christ or smaller.
With the model I use you can work on a surface smaller than 1 square millimeter, I use it to make jewels for my wife with special surface effects…

 

Yes, that is the one, the Stettin/Szczecin crowned griffin mark, after the town crest. On the actual crest you can see it is a crowned griffin/gryphon:

But I don't think that is the mark on Shangas' box.

 

For me it's more a lion's head than a gryphon, when you turn the picture on the screen?

 

Ah, yes, that is much better, why didn't I think of that.
So definitely not Stettin, but a new search.

 

What about England, the Brittannia silver mark "Lion's head erased"? Something like this, but with a different cartouche:


They used several cartouches:
http://www.ascasonline.org/articoloagosto86.html
I know there are more cartouche shapes than listed in the link, and believe the oval one was used in the 1860s. Maybe @DragonflyWink can verify that?

Brittannia silver is ca .958, by the way.

 

It can be english if we can see four different hallmarks.

 

There's definitely at least four hallmarks. But none which I recognise as being British in any way.

 

I've done some cleaning. Here's the hallmarks again...

 

...even MORE cleaning...



The one on the right MIGHT be a maker's mark...? I'm not sure.

I still don't know what the hell these are...

 

Looks like Pewter to me : (